The war against a weed known as fanwort is going well at Bantam Lake. Connie Trolle, president of the Bantam Lake Protective Association, and George Knoecklein, a lake biologist, stand next to a pile of the harvested weeds Tuesday at Litchfield Town Beach. Cal Shropshire, who works for Water's Edge Restoration and Management of Danbury, the company harvesting the weed, holds a handful of fanwort and prepares to use a vacuum to suck weeds pulled from the bottom. Also shown is the barrier installed at the Bantam River inlet to prevent fanwort from entering the lake.

The Bantam Lake Protective Association is on the winning end of its fight to remove fanwort, a non-native invasive weed, from Bantam Lake.

Fanwort spread into the north end of the lake from the Bantam River inlet and left unchecked could have clogged many acres of shallow water, rendering them useless for boating and fishing.

The weed was spotted in the lake in 2002 by lake biologist George Knoecklein, a consultant to the Bantam Lake Protective Association. Since the use of herbicide to kill the weed is prohibited, Knoecklein recommended pulling and vacuuming the weed from the lake.

Three years of the work is expected to end in the next week or so, according to BLPA President Connie Trolle of Morris. Water's Edge Restoration and Management of Danbury is handling the job. About seven acres have been cleared over the past three years.

Bantam Lake was the first lake west of the Connecticut River found to have a fanwort problem, Knoecklein said. Fanwort is native to the South and grows prolifically once introduced to a waterway. The Bantam River inlet to Little Pond is clogged with the weed, as is Timber Lake, a pond near the origin of the river at the Litchfield, Goshen and Torrington borders.

Knoecklein suspects the source of the weed to be in that area. Fanwort can fragment, drift and replant.

To keep the weed out of the lake, a barrier has been installed at the inlet. Also, a polypropylene screen was placed on the bottom of the inlet to keep the sunlight fanwort needs to grow from reaching the bottom.

Knoecklein, Trolle and lake officials are crossing their fingers that the strategy will work. Their next plan is to go after fanwort in the river, but they'll need some money for that. Trolle said a $78,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection to fund the harvesting of the weed in the lake has been spent.

The BLPA, with an annual budget of about $100,000 raises money and has been relying on contributions from the towns of Litchfield and Morris and the White Memorial Foundation.

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